


Those Who Covet

by CourierNinetyTwo



Category: Persona 3, Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Exhibitionism, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-17
Updated: 2017-07-17
Packaged: 2018-12-03 11:27:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11531274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CourierNinetyTwo/pseuds/CourierNinetyTwo
Summary: Mitsuru discovers Sae has a Palace. When she goes inside to investigate, Sae's Shadow raises the stakes.





	Those Who Covet

**Author's Note:**

> Commissioned by rizzles-me-this!

Niijima Sae had a Palace.

The problem was, Mitsuru only figured that out after they had met at a "women's club" in downtown Tokyo and decided to go to a hotel room together. Foolish or not, she hadn't even known the other woman's last name until Sae hunted around in her wallet to pay half the bill, flashing a sliver of ID that let Mitsuru piece together her earlier comments about working in law. While she could have blamed the gin and tonics for a delayed reaction to that complicated truth, the fact was Mitsuru ended up pushing Sae against the back of the elevator the moment the doors closed, seeking out a kiss.

Later, after she made the prosecutor beg and gasp -- so sweetly, bending as if molded for this very moment -- Mitsuru found herself awake and staring at the ceiling. Sae was asleep against her breast, the crease of stress between rich red eyes absent in slumber, and Mitsuru contemplated exactly to what degree she had compromised her investigation into the mysterious phenomenon the Kirijo Group detected months before. While the Dark Hour wasn't back, people were still turning up dead, from subway drivers to prominent politicians, and a Shadow lay in the reflection of every corpse. 

Research had turned up isolated pockets of metaphysical space, similar to the corrupted overlay of Tartarus, but locked in individual minds. Mitsuru considered them to be  _ loci _ , an island of memory and emotion, although she had to admit the other moniker was more poetic and fitting for a creation wrought by ego. So when Artemisia began to whisper in her ear, warning how thin the membrane between skin and psyche had worn, Mitsuru looked at the woman sleeping so peacefully beside her and wondered what secret could weave such a dire, destructive web within Sae's soul.

_ How does one enter a Palace?  _ Mitsuru thought, willing her Persona to hear. She didn't dare speak aloud, not if it would rouse Sae.  _ Is there a key? _

_ There are many hidden paths to that place.  _ Artemisia replied, voice cool and direct as a night's breeze.  _ If you wished it, we could cross its weakest boundary. _

_ I am rather indisposed.  _ Modesty wasn't holding her back, but Mitsuru knew that if she moved to get dressed, it would provoke questions she preferred not to answer.

Silence passed for a moment, then:  _ It is no matter. This world calls to the most rebellious self, and those who wield their true natures will manifest as such. _

That was rather vague, even for Artemisia, but Mitsuru wasn't going to surrender this chance to get to the bottom of this matter, not after so thoroughly compromising her subjectivity.  _ Then take me through. _

Her eyes were drawn shut as if a leaden mask had just fallen across them, and when Mitsuru could see again, a riot of lights and color burned into existence. The first thing she realized what that she was standing inside a casino, filled with heat and noise and the desperate human need for victory. 

The second was that -- just as Artemisia promised -- she was fully dressed, fur coat flowing over her shoulders and blade at one hip. Mitsuru found the latter to be interesting, considering she had not gone out to the bar fully armed. That seemed a touch excessive, even for a bar late at night.

"This is inside Niijima's mind?" Mitsuru asked aloud, divided between wonder and concern as she took in the massive glass elevator dominating the room's center, a wandering staff of Shadows serving drinks to patrons that looked alarmingly normal.

_ Yes, she is mistress of this place.  _ Artemisia replied, then let out an inquisitive hum.  _ And she approaches. _

The click of heels met Mitsuru's ears, and she turned around, schooling her face into a neutral expression not a second too soon. For a moment, she didn't even recognize Sae under the dark, heavy makeup, eyes scorched black and gold, lips slick curves of obsidian. Rather than her sharp and practical suit, a lattice of latex and fishnet stretched from a spiked collar all the way down Sae's long legs, a split at the thighs barely hiding a garter belt or the flask strapped to it. While she wore heels herself, Mitsuru found herself almost a foot shorter, towered over by someone who was unmistakably a Shadow.

"Now, how did a VIP like you slip through the front door unnoticed?" Sae's cold, succinct tone was now something both saccharine and backed by steel, a velvet glove drawn over a gauntleted fist. "I'm afraid my dance card is already full."

Mitsuru was used to the voices of dark and maddened gods, those possessed by a corrosive influence when their Personas sought to overwhelm them, but this Sae appeared to be an independent construct, not an invading force conquering a host. Even with two Shadow bodyguards tapping bottles into their hands behind her, Sae seemed more curious than hostile.

"I'm not here to play." Mitsuru said, trying to keep her tone friendly. "Merely observe."

"I'm afraid that isn't permitted." Pitch black lips parted, baring a line of white teeth. "Everyone must be part of the game, or society would collapse."

"But this is a casino, not a--" Her tongue stilled, and Mitsuru took in the signs plastered on the walls, declaring that  _ winners take all _ . "Courtroom."

"That's where you're wrong. We're all judged here." With a flourish of one elbow-length glove, Sae gestured to the opaque sheath of the elevator. "Let me show you the scales of justice."

While wary, Mitsuru planned to use the Shadow's goodwill until it was spent, and followed where she was directed, stepping into the elevator. Curiously, Sae left her bodyguards behind, and the top button lit up without being touched. As they ascended, Mitsuru took in what details she could, although the staggering size of the Palace left her speechless. While Tartarus possessed seemingly endless floors, it was chained to a manifestation of death incarnate, not a single mind at odds with itself.

Glass doors whispered open, and Mitsuru's heels clicked a beat behind Sae's as they walked past a massive golden threshold and into a room where the stairs paused at a jaw-dropping chasm. Hanging over it was a set of scales tilted off-balance, although both sides appeared to be empty. Sae walked to a small machine and tapped the screen on it, displaying a requested cost of one hundred thousand chips. With a razor-sharp smile, unnaturally bright eyes sought out Mitsuru's.

"I'm afraid I cannot take you further unless you make a bet. But since you have not played the games in my casino, there are no chips for you to bargain with." One black brow arched before Sae clicked her tongue. "Unless you have something else to lay on the line."

Unfortunately, the list of what she could offer was small. Mitsuru would never bet Artemisia, and her sword was only a construct here, possessing no real value. Her own wealth could not be spent in this dark mirror of a world, where only Sae's currency mattered. "I have only myself."

That smile took on a hungry edge, and the pulse in Mitsuru's throat jumped. "I accept."

"We haven't even made a bet yet." Mitsuru countered, trying to recover some ground in the negotiation. "What game are we playing, and what do I get if I am the victor?"

"If you beat the house..." Sae's pause made it clear how unlikely that was, but she humored Mitsuru nonetheless. "You may have my Treasure. Without it, this casino ceases to be."

It was all Mitsuru could do to bite her tongue and not express her surprise. That was an element none of the Kirijo teams had discovered, that a Palace could have a power source, a heart to be ripped asunder. For that information alone, the risk was worth pursuing.

"I accept the bet, but how will we settle it?" Mitsuru asked.

"By luck, of course." Sae swept her hand over the screen again, and suddenly a storm of chips descended from the ceiling, ceramic clattering against gold in a thousand echoes as they struck the higher side of the scales, forcing them to hang evenly. There was now a path to the doors on the other side, which swung open on their own. "I hope you like roulette."

Mitsuru didn't have any particular opinion about roulette, but that didn't leave her any less in awe when they entered the next room and she saw the titanic wheel, large enough to serve as its own arena. Sae walked down a set of steps into its sculpted center, and Mitsuru followed suit, noting that the stairs folded back up behind her once they had both descended. From every empty corner of the room, Shadows began to emerge, each one dressed to the nines in dresses and tuxedos, holding empty glasses and handfuls of chips. Their chatter was mindless, but unnerving.

"What is a game without an audience?" Sae declared, stopping in the very center of the wheel before she turned around. Just then, Mitsuru discerned the design tattooed on her back: a doberman on guard, surrounded by thorny roses, and far different than the ink she had kissed back in the hotel room. "Now make your bet, Kirijo Mitsuru."

The fact that the Shadow knew her name was even more alarming, but she supposed that it would be hard to keep many secrets when one was literally strolling through the most intimate places of another's mind. All the more reason to play it safe. "Place mine on red."

"Then I will take black." Sae declared, and with a flick of her wrist, the wheel began to spin. A large, polished ball emerged and rolled around the rim, colors blurring together until it clinked against the black eight. "And you lose."

Mitsuru swallowed hard. She wouldn't admit defeat so easily, not on a fifty-fifty split. "Was that one spin truly worth a hundred thousand chips?"

"Are you testing my generosity? How rude." Still, amusement flared in Sae's eyes. "I will permit another turn of the wheel, but only if you go all in."

That meant a real risk, but if the Shadow echoed her in choosing a single number, they could easily both lose. "Twenty-five on red."

"Double zero, black." Sae laughed, and the wheel spun again.

Something glimmered in the corner of Mitsuru's vision, but she couldn't discern the source, not when her heart jumped every time the ball rolled by the red twenty-five. The wheel finally began to slow, but when it stopped, a winner was clear. Perhaps there was some irony in the fact that the double zero reminded her of snake eyes, but in that moment Mitsuru learned two more crucial pieces of information: first, that she had lost.

Second, that Sae had rigged every part of their game.

She was ready to summon her Persona and fight, but rather than turning violent, Sae approached Mitsuru with slow, deliberate steps, every impact of her heels against gilded wood like the tick of a clock. 

Glove-clad fingers cupped her cheek, surprisingly gentle. "Take off your coat."

"Why?" It wasn't the demand she expected, not by far.

"Because I will claim what is mine." Sae growled, leaning down until their lips were a mere inch apart. The softness vanished, replaced by a vise-like grip against Mitsuru's jaw. "And I want them all to see how I enjoy my prize."

Mitsuru almost laughed. She had expected the Shadow to try and kill her, or to try and keep her in the perpetual cycle of the casino, playing her way into a debt she couldn't possibly repay, but the last thing on her mind was such a proposition. The curious, analytical part of her mind wondered if this was because she had taken the real Sae to bed, influencing the Shadow's range of desires, but the rest of her intended to survive and tear this place apart brick from metaphysical brick, so she let her shoulders fall slack, the sleeves of the coat surrendering to gravity before its weight took glossy white fur to the floor.

"So even an Empress can bow." The Shadow sounded surprised but pleased, and her fingers traced down Mitsuru's cheek to the pale line of her throat before giving the column of flesh a firm squeeze. "Now the rest."

The belt went next, taking her Evoker with it, and Mitsuru reached to her back, undoing laces and clasps alike until the reinforced cincher under her breasts fell slack, the surrounding straps condemned to the same fate and leaving her in nothing more than the black bodysuit underneath. Golden eyes traversed the skintight barrier before Sae's hands followed the same path, smooth knuckles delving all the way down Mitsuru's stomach before one cool palm cupped right between her thighs.

Mitsuru shuddered, the pressure a provocation in itself and Sae smirked before purring, "There still seems to be something in my way."

When she sought out the zipper of the suit, Mitsuru was painfully aware of how many eyes were on her, the arena's audience staring in unison. While the Shadows weren't real people by any means, their gazes still possessed a certain weight, and her face flushed crimson when she pulled the catsuit down, Sae's hand leaving her for mere seconds until the leather was a tight tangle around both knees. She was utterly bare underneath, and the Shadow took full advantage, fingers petting over wine-colored curls.

"Let's make another bet." Sae whispered, so close that Mitsuru could breathe hard and close the gap. "How long you'll last."

All around her, the crowd burst into cheers, and Mitsuru heard chips being exchanged in a frenzy, glasses shattered as Shadows trampled over one another to make their wagers. Sae took advantage of her distraction, fingers stroking along sensitive folds before seizing Mitsuru's mouth in a hard kiss, teeth and tongue forcing her lips to part. She muffled a moan against the Shadow's lips, from pleasure as much as shock, and Sae's other hand groped its way up to her breasts, pinching her nipples into hard, aching peaks. 

"Spread your legs." The Shadow snapped.

Obeying was harder than it first appeared, for the trap of her half-stripped suit and heels meant the order could only be followed by inches, else she risk falling. Sae's impatience showed in an instant, giving one breast a bruising squeeze, and Mitsuru bit back a groan before her legs staggered apart, stretching to the limits of the leather as a quiver went through both thighs. 

Latex-clad fingers came back shining as they casually explored her, spreading Mitsuru open and seeking right under the hood of her clit. She let out a roughened breath, trying to keep from being too loud, but Sae's eyes narrowed as if sensing her restraint. The punishment was a firm pressure on the sensitive swell from both sides, caught in the V of Sae's fingers as she toyed with Mitsuru's clit, lingering until a moan escaped between clenched teeth.

"I have no use for modesty." Sae snarled, another demanding kiss finding its target on Mitsuru's mouth, then descending down her jaw until teeth found a hammering pulse in the neck below. She bit down and sucked, wrenching a short cry from Mitsuru's throat and leaving a smear of black lipstick behind. "Give them a show. If I'm not entertained, neither are the masses."

It wasn't a matter of pretending, only rejecting that bone-deep urge to stay in control, and Mitsuru knew the virtue of a tactical surrender. The next time Sae's fingers swept past swollen folds and down to her entrance, she moaned without apprehension, and was rewarded by two of them slipping inside her. Mitsuru felt her back arch by instinct, hands clenching into fists to try and keep her balance, the unnatural smoothness of the latex thrusting in and out of her with ease, encouraged further by a building arousal.

"Pretty thing." The whisper was right against Mitsuru's throat, filling a gap left by harsh teeth. "I wish I could keep you, but this isn't where you belong, mm? Another Shadow has left its mark."

The whole situation with Nyx was far more complicated than that, but Mitsuru wasn't about to debate the metaphysical possibilities when she was being fucked senseless, especially as Sae's attention to her breasts and neck intensified, marks spreading out across her shoulders like a mantle, crescents of teeth and lipstick overlaying each other, black on red. She wished she could grab at Sae for balance, do anything but quiver and gasp, but then those two fingers curved deep inside her, and white-hot pleasure blazed up Mitsuru's spine.

She shook, trembling on the edge of release until Sae finally measured out a fraction of pity, thumb finding her clit and circling it hard and quick. Mitsuru didn't even know what sound left her lips, too lost to the blur of thrusts inside her, bliss stealing the rest of the world away. Her orgasm was a desperate sort of collapse, legs shaking as Sae refused to relent, smile turning wholly wicked before Mitsuru couldn't take it anymore. The moment Sae's hand withdrew, she fell to quaking knees, hands catching her weight before the rest of her struck the floor. 

Mitsuru panted for breath, adrenaline and endorphins leaving her dazed and defenseless when Sae raised a heel and pushed hard against one shoulder. She was knocked right onto her back, the howls of the crowd becoming a mindless maelstrom as a sharp point pressed down between her breasts, the tip of Sae's shoe right under Mitsuru's chin. Each inhale ached under the pin, but it was impossible to try and stand when her legs betrayed her, turned to liquid mercury from such an overwhelming climax.

"Leave this place, Empress." Sae demanded, grin smug and satisfied, although the chill in her eyes had yet to truly melt. "I've taken my fill of you."

"Will she know this happened?" She needed that answer, could not leave without it.

The Shadow tilted her head, honest surprise playing across that unnaturally pale face. "No. We can never see the darkness in our own hearts."

For a thousand reasons, those words rang painfully true, and Mitsuru closed her eyes while willing Artemisia to take them both out of this place. When she opened them again, the neon-splashed chaos of the casino was gone, replaced with the beige ceiling of the hotel room and a soft bed beneath her back. The press of limbs against her own was a brief shock until she remembered the position she had left in, and from the look of things, Sae hadn't so much as stirred in her absence.

_ You know your role is unjust.  _ Mitsuru realized, sympathy panging in her chest with a ferocity far beyond the Shadow's sharp heel.  _ But to leave is to lose, and the price is too high. _

She needed to leave, to speak with the scientists within the Kirijo Group about what she had seen in the Palace -- with some careful redactions, of course -- and send out yet more agents to discover the identities of these so-called Phantom Thieves. Perhaps somewhere in that labyrinth of unanswered questions, a cure for Sae's torment lay in wait.

For now, all Mitsuru could offer was a gentle kiss to the top of her head, and an arm slipping around Sae's back to hold her close until the dawn came.

\--   
  



End file.
